Fabio’s men are serious contenders for South African tournament
England are currently 9/1 to win World Cup 2010, with only Brazil, Argentina and Spain posing a greater threat in the eyes of the bookies. Fabio Capello’s side have shown improvement with each of his ten games in charge, and with an 80 per cent win rate, he is by far the country’s most successful manager. But will he be able to maintain this record and bring home football’s most valuable prize? Or are we all giddy and caught up in the post-Germany excitement?
Very few of us expected England to get anything out of their trip to Zagreb (just 33 per cent of Spoiler readers felt a win was on the cards), but somehow the national side turned out their best performance in ages.
The scary thought that everyone is pondering but nobody is brave enough to say is that if Fabio Capello, who has won league titles with every club he has managed, can’t turn England around, then nobody can. And so far things aren’t looking too good.
Here are five reasons why England will lose to Croatia again, according to the prophets at chickendinner:
1. Since gaining their independence, Croatia are unbeaten in all 35 home qualifying matches.
2. Croatia have lost just one of their 16 competitive matches in 90 minutes under Slaven Bilic - an away qualifier against Macedonia when their Euro 2008 place was already confirmed.
Ahead of tonight’s crunch tie with Croatia, Fabio Capello has used his impressive new English language skills to tell us he believes the national team will perform better in Zagreb, where they will be free from the high expectations and boo boys of Wembley. However, confidence in England could not be lower, and the side’s only other visit to Zagreb (in October 2006) resulted in a 2-0 schooling.
So, should we believe that our overpaid underdogs can pull off a morale-lifting victory, or will tomorrow’s papers call for the head of a bespectacled Italian? Votes and comments below, please.
Skybet are currently offering 7/2 on David Beckham getting 109 caps or more. Given Fabio’s over-the-top praise of Mr B, and the fact that qualification is a few short months away (it begins on September 6 in Andorra), it seems likely that he will feature in the tournament build up. Assuming he plays against the USA in May and Germany in November, he would need only to play in seven of the ten qualifiers to make the bet good.
But in June 2010, however, Beckham will be 35 and a veteran of a slow-paced, lesser quality league. Meanwhile, spritely players like David Bentley will be champing at the bit to get into the side.
Debate surrounding his role in the side has been heavily publicised, but would you actually like to see Becks in South Africa? Votes, sentimentality and comments below, please folks.
